It doesn't need to be 100% scientifically accurate to be enjoyable for the story elements.

It does help to stay within one genre, tho.What separates science fiction from fantasy is how well it plays with real scientific concepts. Otherwise you end up writing about space wizards who use "inverse quantum tachyon streams" to blast each other instead of simply going with magic.

Star Trek started out as a planet of the hats morality play that was mostly fantasy.It then devolved into a mess of bad science and techno babble that hurts ones brain.They should have stuck with fantasy and skipped over the details.It makes it easier to suspend our disbelieving when we don't have to swallow a poorly written backstory.

Yes, humans with pointy ears and doughy faces are totally absurd! It's taking away from the realism of mile-long starships travelling faster than the speed of light with artificial gravity, transporters, replicators, made of non-existent materials and dozens of improbable particles....